The prequel to Death Troopers, a Star Wars horror novel by Joe Schreiber. It serves as an origin story for The Virus that is the focus of both novels. The story takes place 3645 years before the events of the original trilogy. Hestizo Trace (“Zo” for short”) is in the Jedi Agricultural Corps due to her ability to form a force bond with certain plants. She is the caretaker of a rare black orchid. Unfortunately, this orchid is needed by Darth Scabrous, head of the Sith Academy on Odacer-Faustin, to complete his immortality formula. So Zo is kidnapped by a bounty hunter, who takes her to Scabrous. Scabrous then uses it to unintentionally unleash zombies on the academy, which begin to kill the students, turning them into zombies. The story then follows a Zo and the bounty hunter, as well as a